Thought I would take time out of my development hiatus to highlight one of the web’s biggest ironies.

First, let’s take a look at one particular YouTube video which has, in all senses of the word, gone viral. If you’ve already seen it, feel free not to click it again — you know where I’m going with this.

Noting the date of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” YouTube launch, as of the time of this post, it averages to just under 1,000,000 views per day. More importantly, she was recently highlighted in Good Morning America and constantly hounded with parodies by everyone with a video camera on YouTube.

For better or for worse, Rebecca Black has gone viral.

A disclaimer: in complete honesty, I do not like the song. I don’t see myself liking it down the line either, albeit its catchy-ness. A lot of people share this sentiment; a majority of the videos featuring Rebecca Black has at least a 4:1 ratio of dislikes to likes. Right now, it is quite possible that she is among the most hated tweens in America.

And yet her name grows in popularity.

Call it infamy, but in the age of the Internet, 20+ million views on a music video will only… ONLY benefit an artist. Even if she goes down as one of the worst singers in the world, she will still be known as the person who took a global audience by storm. THAT, carries weight in the music industry — some of the best artists in the world could never accomplish what a seemingly bad singer did.

It goes against every logical argument (at least personally) but for whatever reason, “Friday” would probably pave the way for Rebecca’s singing career. This is because she has haters and supporters in the MILLIONS. Her virality has indeed become an unstoppable virus; any positive or negative comment at this point will simply further her cause. It is a guarantee that we’ll see more of Rebecca Black in the future; what interests me is how she will ride this wave.

I read on particularly because I was partial to that kind of thinking. At least, I was prior to reading the actual article.

A disclaimer: This is not a response to the article or her opinions; these are simply my own thoughts on the subject.

Company + Personality + Facebook = ???

This is an age old question that I dare not even answer. Not only do I not have the expertise or experience required to even fathom making a judgment call on that, but there are also countless case studies that both support and disprove the theory that personality on Facebook is an ideal corporate strategy. What I am saying is the reason why this question does not have an answer – it’s different for everyone and will/won’t work on a case-by-case basis.

Facebook, fundamentally, allows for the creation and interaction of and between your own social network. That’s all it does. The content and context of that interaction differs as much as there are different types of people in your friend’s list. Sometimes, your personality shines and on others, it severely backfires on you. That’s simply how ANY relationship works.

I think that this is the curse of any business-minded individual or corporation. We are so desensitized to formulaic models and tried-and-true theories that we expect the same to apply in social media. But, I hope we remember that social media is just that – SOCIAL. Motivation, personality, communication – these social factors and elements in our daily interactions never had any scientific reasoning behind them and probably never will.

But, between you and me, that’s exactly why I like waking out of bed every morning.

Quora has been getting a lot of social media press ever since 2011 started. It’s amazing how this site came almost out of nowhere to being one of the most hyped social media platforms today. I personally got quite a few emails to check it out and with the seemingly never-ending streams on Twitter about it, check it out I did.

After a few days of really trying it out (answered 10+ questions so far, browsed at least 3x that), I have to say that I’m impressed by how the system is designed. One would think that it’s a direct rip-off out of any Answers engine but it’s much more than that. Yes, there are certain similar elements between Quora and the traditional Answers, but I find Quora doing things just a little bit better.

Quora – The Social Media Answers Site

If you ask anyone on what Quora is, you’ll probably get that answer above. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that answer; it is in fact an Answers site with integrated social media elements. What makes it particularly worth your time is how well that integration is. Here’s a rundown of exactly what I mean.

1. The ability to follow people AND questions/answers.

The follow command has taken on many forms, but it is omnipresent in virtually all social media platforms. The same applies here but it’s done in an utterly simple and effective fashion. People can choose to follow the topics (subject matter), the questions/answers (specific topics) and/or the people behind the answers (experts). In a real life question-answer relationship, these are all the elements that you’d need to know behind it. The ability to follow any or all of them according to your preference ensures that whatever you see on the site is applicable to you – something traditional Answer sites currently lack.

2. Social recognition

Let’s face it – you want to get yourself recognized. Whether it’s your personal skills, your company’s offering or your industry and field of expertise, you want people to notice it. Quora allows you to do just that. Expertise is demonstrated when answering a question. Credibility is established when people recognize it, thank you for it and “like” it. What makes this work even more efficiently is that people have accountability on Quora: you can tie answers to real faces and real people. It’s a commendable risk for Quora to take and is one that seems to be paying off. Because…

3. Professionalism

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Answers site without spam and, for the lack of a better term, crap answers until Quora. There were a bunch of things that can go wrong when tying online personas to offline people but in Quora’s case, this happened to work just fine. The questions in Quora are much more professionally presented – formal and clean answers are expected and required. This really brings out some exceptionally good answers by experts in your particular field which makes the site that much more worth your time.

I personally don’t think I’m in any position to make a judgment call on Quora. But, because of the previously outlined points, I continue to use and have high hopes for it. It’s another excellent networking tool and functions exactly how it should as a Q-A site.

As for how effective it is in giving dating advice… that’s another story.

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The New Year has come and gone, resolutions have been made and broken and everyone is coming back to reality.

That reality being: “The economy still sucks.”

I’ll admit it – technically, I am jobless. I have been actively checking literally everywhere for possible jobs but it seems that hiring hasn’t quite picked up yet. There’s a good… or rather, “better” outlook for employment in 2011 but reality doesn’t allow me and a lot of you out there the luxury of waiting for that to happen.

So, fellow social media-lists, what do we do about it? Hint: This is a trick question.

That’s because your job never really stops when you voluntarily or forcibly leave your company: you are still working in social media. As the social media industry is still new and unconventional, I believe it also follows that the notion of a “social media job” is also new and unconventional.

That’s the beauty and curse of working in social! You are constantly connected to the job – Your personal branding always needs improvement, your writing skills constantly need polishing and your network can always go bigger. Your reputation as a social media specialist does NOT require you working for a company; Building your experience, your social media identity and credibility IS your job – you learn your skills to sell and companies just so happen “buy” you when they see fit.

When you signed the figurative contract to work in social media, you became your own business and your own entrepreneur. Your product is your skills, your marketing is your online brand and your consumer channel is your social network. Companies, or rather, customers, will “buy” into you more if you have a strong brand identity, following, ability to create content, etc.

So, stop refreshing the job pages and handing out resumes for now. Think of your real commitment to yourself. Should you promote yourself via blogging? Increase your networking via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook? Gain a skill in coding Javascript and HTML? Work for your friend’s website as a freelance SEO specialist? The possibilities are endless, and will ultimately lead me and you to an interested “buyer”.

Here’s some excellent links to help you further along in your job: to build yourself, your network and your skills to find a paying customer.